It’s so nice to be able to breathe out again. Talk about tension.
The New Mrs Clifton had me gripped from the off. I had eagerly anticipated its arrival and was not disappointed. I am still haunted by the characters of Elizabeth Buchan’s previous novel, I Can’t Begin to Tell You and now I can add Gus and Krista Clifton to the cast list that has taken residence in my head.
As the Second World War draws to a close, Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton surprises his sisters at their London home. But an even greater shock is the woman he brings with him, Krista – the German wife whom he has secretly married in Berlin.
Krista is still suffering from her experiences at the hands of the British and their allies as Berlin fell; she is all but broken by the horrors she cannot share. But Gus’s sisters can only see the enemy their brother has brought under their roof. And their friend, Nella, Gus’s beautiful, loyal fiancée, cannot understand what made Gus change his mind about her. Bewildered, they cannot fathom the hold Krista has over their honourable Gus. How can the three women get her out of their home, their future, their England?
The stifling atmosphere of the house oozes from every page, the suffocating tension between the women pervades each chapter.
We learn of the consequences of Krista’s arrival in the first two pages, so the reader is in no doubt as to what the end will be but the who, and the why and the how keep you hooked until the end.
An absolute eye opener to post-war England for anyone who is under the impression that once war was over it was a series of hope and happy endings. I couldn’t help but think of the war in Syria and the people of Aleppo as I turned the pages, drawing parallels, thinking about the future they face when war is eventually over. Let us hope that is sooner rather than later.
It is a story of deprivation and resolution, and what it takes to survive when the future is bleak. What choices we are left with.
A fabulous read from start to finish.
Elizabeth Buchan’s previous novels include the prizewinning Consider the Lily, Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman and I Can’t Begin to Tell You. Her short stories have been broadcast on Radio 4 and published in a range of magazines. Elizabeth is patron of the Guildford Book Festival and of the National Academy of Writing. She has been a judge for the Costa Novel Award and sits on the authors’ committee for the Reading Agency
The New Mrs Clifton is published by Penguin